Thursday, February 12, 2009

As I posted earlier, Seven Jewish Children is a short play by Caryl Churchill that was written as an effectively anti-semitic "response" to Israel's Operation Cast Lead.

Churchill is freely licensing the play, under these conditions:

The play can be read or performed anywhere, by any numberof people. Anyone who wishes to do it should contact theauthor’s agent (details below), who will license performancesfree of charge provided that no admission fee is charged andthat a collection is taken at each performance for Medical Aidfor Palestinians (MAP)

The play shows a truly despicable Jew-hatred. Its underlying theme is that Jews who feel an attachment to Israel are inveterate liars who consciously feed their children myths, and these children can grow up and lie to their own children, all the while knowing that they are the evil ones and Palestinian Arabs are righteous.

For most of the play, increasingly so as it goes on, nearly all the "Tell her..." lines are what the playwright considers lies and the "Don't tell her...." lines are what she considers the truth. The climax of this sick thinking comes at the penultimate line, "Tell her we love her" - Churchill believes that Jews who live in Israel cannot possibly love their children.

Of course, no modern liberal anti-semitic play can be complete without comparing Gaza with the Holocaust, so it starts semi-sympathetically (but even then, Jews lie to their children) and goes on to the inevitable and grotesque ideas that Jews today revel in the deaths of innocents, just like the Nazis who they must have learned this from.

No children appear in the play. The speakers are adults, the parents and if youlike other relations of the children. The lines can be shared out in any way youlike among those characters. The characters are different in each small scene asthe time and child are different. They may be played by any number of actors.1Tell her it’s a gameTell her it’s seriousBut don’t frighten herDon’t tell her they’ll kill herTell her it’s important to be quietTell her she’ll have cake if she’s goodTell her to curl up as if she’s in bedBut not to sing.Tell her not to come outTell her not to come out even if she hears shoutingDon’t frighten herTell her not to come out even if she hears nothing for a long timeTell her we’ll come and find herTell her we’ll be here all the time.Tell her something about the menTell her they’re bad in the gameTell her it’s a storyTell her they’ll go awayTell her she can make them go away if she keeps stillBy magicBut not to sing.2Tell her this is a photograph of her grandmother, her uncles and meTell her her uncles diedDon’t tell her they were killedTell her they were killedDon’t frighten her.Tell her her grandmother was cleverDon’t tell her what they didTell her she was braveTell her she taught me how to make cakesDon’t tell her what they didTell her somethingTell her more when she’s older.Tell her there were people who hated JewsDon’t tell herTell her it’s over nowTell her there are still people who hate JewsTell her there are people who love JewsDon’t tell her to think Jews or not JewsTell her more when she’s olderTell her how many when she’s olderTell her it was before she was born and she’s not in dangerDon’t tell her there’s any question of danger.Tell her we love herTell her dead or alive her family all love herTell her her grandmother would be proud of her.3Don’t tell her we’re going for everTell her she can write to her friends, tell her her friends can maybecome and visitTell her it’s sunny thereTell her we’re going homeTell her it’s the land God gave usDon’t tell her religionTell her her great great great great lots of greats grandad lived thereDon’t tell her he was driven outTell her, of course tell her, tell her everyone was driven out andthe country is waiting for us to come homeDon’t tell her she doesn’t belong hereTell her of course she likes it here but she’ll like it there even more.Tell her it’s an adventureTell her no one will tease herTell her she’ll have new friendsTell her she can take her toysDon’t tell her she can take all her toysTell her she’s a special girlTell her about Jerusalem.4Don’t tell her who they areTell her somethingTell her they’re Bedouin, they travel aboutTell her about camels in the desert and datesTell her they live in tentsTell her this wasn’t their homeDon’t tell her home, not home, tell her they’re going awayDon’t tell her they don’t like herTell her to be careful.Don’t tell her who used to live in this houseNo but don’t tell her her great great grandfather used to live inthis houseNo but don’t tell her Arabs used to sleep in her bedroom.Tell her not to be rude to themTell her not to be frightenedDon’t tell her she can’t play with the childrenDon’t tell her she can have them in the house.Tell her they have plenty of friends and familyTell her for miles and miles all round they have lands of their ownTell her again this is our promised land.Don’t tell her they said it was a land without peopleDon’t tell her I wouldn’t have come if I’d known.Tell her maybe we can share.Don’t tell her that.5Tell her we wonTell her her brother’s a heroTell her how big their armies areTell her we turned them backTell her we’re fightersTell her we’ve got new land.6Don’t tell herDon’t tell her the trouble about the swimming poolTell her it’s our water, we have the rightTell her it’s not the water for their fieldsDon’t tell her anything about water.Don’t tell her about the bulldozerDon’t tell her not to look at the bulldozerDon’t tell her it was knocking the house downTell her it’s a building siteDon’t tell her anything about bulldozers.Don’t tell her about the queues at the checkpointTell her we’ll be there in no timeDon’t tell her anything she doesn’t askDon’t tell her the boy was shotDon’t tell her anything.Tell her we’re making new farms in the desertDon’t tell her about the olive treesTell her we’re building new towns in the wilderness.Don’t tell her they throw stonesTell her they’re not much good against tanksDon’t tell her that.Don’t tell her they set off bombs in cafésTell her, tell her they set off bombs in cafésTell her to be carefulDon’t frighten her.Tell her we need the wall to keep us safeTell her they want to drive us into the seaTell her they don’tTell her they want to drive us into the sea.Tell her we kill far more of themDon’t tell her thatTell her thatTell her we’re strongerTell her we’re entitledTell her they don’t understand anything except violenceTell her we want peaceTell her we’re going swimming.7Tell her she can’t watch the newsTell her she can watch cartoonsTell her she can stay up late and watch Friends.Tell her they’re attacking with rocketsDon’t frighten herTell her only a few of us have been killedTell her the army has come to our defenceDon’t tell her her cousin refused to serve in the army.Don’t tell her how many of them have been killedTell her the Hamas fighters have been killedTell her they’re terroristsTell her they’re filthDon’tDon’t tell her about the family of dead girlsTell her you can’t believe what you see on televisionTell her we killed the babies by mistakeDon’t tell her anything about the armyTell her, tell her about the army, tell her to be proud of the army.Tell her about the family of dead girls, tell her their names whynot, tell her the whole world knows why shouldn’t she know? tellher there’s dead babies, did she see babies? tell her she’s gotnothing to be ashamed of. Tell her they did it to themselves. Tellher they want their children killed to make people sorry for them,tell her I’m not sorry for them, tell her not to be sorry for them,tell her we’re the ones to be sorry for, tell her they can’t talksuffering to us. Tell her we’re the iron fist now, tell her it’s the fogof war, tell her we won’t stop killing them till we’re safe, tell her Ilaughed when I saw the dead policemen, tell her they’re animalsliving in rubble now, tell her I wouldn’t care if we wiped them out,the world would hate us is the only thing, tell her I don’t care ifthe world hates us, tell her we’re better haters, tell her we’rechosen people, tell her I look at one of their children covered inblood and what do I feel? tell her all I feel is happy it’s not her.Don’t tell her that.Tell her we love her.Don’t frighten her.

The "Jews for Justice for Palestinians" website reproduces an article from Middle East Quarterly that calls into question the ...

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